I always tell people to assume that stray dogs have owners...and to try and find the owners first. What a great story this is! Wow!

By Jason Green

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted: 07/28/2011 04:29:26 PM PDTUpdated: 07/29/2011 12:59:01 PM PDT

Click photo to enlargeBillie, a 7-year-old boxer-pit bull mix, was severely... (Courtesy of Palo Alto Animal Ser)«123»There are lucky dogs and then there are really lucky dogs.

Count Billie, a 7-year-old boxer-pit bull mix, among the latter. Lost for 34 days, she was little more than skin and bones when a Palo Alto Animal Services officer rescued her in the wilds of Los Altos Hills on June 25.

"I actually couldn't hold her," said Tai, 32, recalling her joyful reunion with Billie, who is a healthy 57 pounds now and climbing. "I was scared I was going to hurt her."

Billie's ordeal began on May 23, when painters working at Tai's home in Los Altos opened a door to the garage the pup was left in for the day. The workers needed to use an outlet in the garage and the sound of noisy equipment firing up sent the typically skittish Billie running.

"I get home at 4:30 and I ask the painters, 'Where's my dog?'" Tai said. "They said, 'She ran away.' What do you do at that point? Get angry or accept it?"

While Tai and her girlfriend of two years, Lillian Jungleib, 25, accepted the explanation, they were far from ready to write Billie off. The pair canvassed Los Altos, made hundreds of fliers and visited every shelter from San Mateo to San Martin.

A quick reunion seemed possible at first. Tai and Jungleib talked to a handful of locals who had seen a large brown-and-white dog like Billie. But the leads soon dried up, and the only people who

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------responded to the fliers were well-wishers.

"After that first week, I thought she was gone," Jungleib said. "I kept going through the motions for (Tai). I didn't have the heart to tell her (Billie's) not coming back."

Against all odds, though, Billie was spotted on June 25 near Purissima and Robleda roads in Los Altos Hills by a neighborhood resident, who called Palo Alto Animal Services. Within an hour of setting a trap, Officer William Warrior had Billie in his truck and on the way to an emergency veterinary clinic in Palo Alto.

"She was just a sack of bones. I couldn't imagine her going another week," he said. "In 32 years I've never seen a dog that emaciated in the field."

Billie wasn't wearing a collar the day she ran away, but another animal services officer, Jeanette Washington, found a report on a missing dog that matched the description of the one rescued by Warrior, and within two days Billie was back home with Tai.

It's a mystery to Tai and Jungleib where Billie spent the days she was missing.

"She was probably running opposite of any noise that frightened her," said Tai, adding that Billie inherited her boxer mother's lack of smarts and her red nose pit bull father's stubbornness.

"The

biggest detriment for her is she's an idiot and couldn't find her way home," Tai joked. "But it's because she was an idiot she was able to keep going."

Thankful for the second chance, Tai is keeping close tabs on her four-legged friend. Billie and her other dog, Dizzy, regularly accompany her to work at Accendo, a real estate brokerage firm she owns in San Jose. When Billie regains some more body fat, she'll be implanted with a microchip to help bring her home faster in the unlikely event she goes on the lam again.

"I feel like everything I didn't do with her before, I want to do now," said Tai, citing a recent trip to Fort Bragg so Billie could play on the beach. "Everything we do now is with such fervor."

As for this: "I get home at 4:30 and I ask the painters, 'Where's my dog?'" Tai said. "They said, 'She ran away.' What do you do at that point? Get angry or accept it?" I would have HOPED the painters could have, ya know, CALLED HER AT WORK???????

As for this: "I get home at 4:30 and I ask the painters, 'Where's my dog?'" Tai said. "They said, 'She ran away.' What do you do at that point? Get angry or accept it?" I would have HOPED the painters could have, ya know, CALLED HER AT WORK???????

They certainly didn't seem to be too concerned... some people are astonishing.

But amazing story, so glad this baby made it home safe (if skinny ) when so many don't. If I had a pittie mix and she was lost I'd be so afraid that someone would be too ignorant or scared to try to catch and rescue her... Such a lucky pup!